Ancient Schwannoma of superficial peroneal nerve presenting as intermittent leg pain: A case report

INTRODUCTION: Schwannomas are benign, encapsulated, slow-growing and usually solitary tumors originating from Schwann cells of the peripheral nerve sheath. Schwannomas of the superficial peroneal nerves are very rare, and therefore scarcely documented in the literature. The authors report a case of a diagnosed superficial fibular nerve sheath tumor with an unreported clinical presentation. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 52-year-old Caucasian female arrived to our Orthopedics Department complaining of pain and numbness of the lateral aspect of her left leg. These symptoms were present for a year and were more evident at the end of the day, or after a long time in the orthostatic position. No evidence of other medical illnesses was found. There was no record of prior traumatic events related to that limb. Diagnosis of a benign peripheral nerve tumor was achieved and the patient was treated by surgical excision of the lesion. DISCUSSION: The intermittent symptomatology presentation on this case suggest a mechanical compression etiology, allied to classical pain and paresthesia often exhibited by this kind of the tumor. An intracompartimental pressure elevation could explain why the symptoms disclosed an episodic pattern, due to a constricted, inclosed nerve. CONCLUSION: We describe a rare case of a patient with an unusual superficial peroneal nerve Schwannoma clinical presentation. Literature on this topic is scarce and, therefore, this case report intends to add further data about this kind of lesion.